My Blog
Monday, April 14, 2008
I feel so restless
I have been feeling restless since last week that I cannot hardly sleep well. I guess I am feeling this way because the time of our coming home is drawing near it's all I could think of these past few weeks already.
If our original schedule had pushed through we would have been boarding the plane as of this writing because our initial schedule was to be there when our parent's wedding anniversary come, which is April 16. However, due to a conflict with Sharie's colleague's vacation too, we had to postpone ours.
I have already paid for the tax of my free ticket just today. If I am a revenue passenger, I should have paid for KD 235.100 ($862 or P41,336) but fortunately, I can avail free ticket and I have to pay only for the tax which was KD 11.100 ($41 or P1952). I guess my restlessness escalated because I'm all set to go. That's why I can hardly post at the board coz all I can think about is going home.
We had already packed some of the gifts we bought for our family and one bag already weighs 18 Kgs. The other things that were not packed yet was approximately 20 kgs and we still need to buy some few things that they asked. I think we would not exceed the 80 kgs allowed for both of us (40 kg each).
However, we have slight problem for our domestic flight. We are scheduled to leave KWI-MNL on May 15 at 11: 50 PM Kuwait time (4:50 AM Manila time) and would reach MNL on May 16 at 4:25 PM Manila time. Manila is 5 hours ahead of Kuwait so our total time travel is almost twelve hours.
/
The Philippine Airlines last flight Manila-Bacolod (which is our province/state) is 4:35 PM and I am very sure that we would not make it! I have inquired in Cebu Pacific and their last flight is 5:45 PM but we still need to go to Domestic airport which is 15-30 minute ride from the International airport. So it seems as if we have to stay at the airport and wait the night over for the first trip which is 5:15 in the morning of May 17 already. Gosh, can you believe it? It seems like we would be traveling for 24 hours!
Isn't it May 15 yet?
If our original schedule had pushed through we would have been boarding the plane as of this writing because our initial schedule was to be there when our parent's wedding anniversary come, which is April 16. However, due to a conflict with Sharie's colleague's vacation too, we had to postpone ours.
I have already paid for the tax of my free ticket just today. If I am a revenue passenger, I should have paid for KD 235.100 ($862 or P41,336) but fortunately, I can avail free ticket and I have to pay only for the tax which was KD 11.100 ($41 or P1952). I guess my restlessness escalated because I'm all set to go. That's why I can hardly post at the board coz all I can think about is going home.
We had already packed some of the gifts we bought for our family and one bag already weighs 18 Kgs. The other things that were not packed yet was approximately 20 kgs and we still need to buy some few things that they asked. I think we would not exceed the 80 kgs allowed for both of us (40 kg each).
However, we have slight problem for our domestic flight. We are scheduled to leave KWI-MNL on May 15 at 11: 50 PM Kuwait time (4:50 AM Manila time) and would reach MNL on May 16 at 4:25 PM Manila time. Manila is 5 hours ahead of Kuwait so our total time travel is almost twelve hours.
/
The Philippine Airlines last flight Manila-Bacolod (which is our province/state) is 4:35 PM and I am very sure that we would not make it! I have inquired in Cebu Pacific and their last flight is 5:45 PM but we still need to go to Domestic airport which is 15-30 minute ride from the International airport. So it seems as if we have to stay at the airport and wait the night over for the first trip which is 5:15 in the morning of May 17 already. Gosh, can you believe it? It seems like we would be traveling for 24 hours!
Isn't it May 15 yet?
Labels: going home, personal, Philippines, vacation
Monday, March 24, 2008
Currently reading: Stormfire
We have finally received the Stormfire - which is the chosen book for the JMF book tour and discussion (once everyone who participated have read the book).
It was decided that it should tour the world since it's one of the hard-to-find books these days and it triggered a lot of controversies in the JM board way back then.
Gloria has posted the detailed summary of the book in JMF and it perked the curiosity and interest of most of us - especially mine. Since I never judge a book by its summary LOL... and readers' reaction, I decided to join the book tour.
I was bracing myself for disliking it and giving it up.
The first few pages was a little boring for me coz in the middle of my reading, other thoughts keep on popping into my head, unabling me to concentrate. However, a hundred page after, my interest was captured and I am liking it!
Yeah, it was unbelievable since I assumed this was a dark book based on the summary.
Right now, I am still on Chapter 8 and so far so good. I was not able to read it a lot coz we had to cook for our friend/flatmate's birthday celebration last Thursday.
It was decided that it should tour the world since it's one of the hard-to-find books these days and it triggered a lot of controversies in the JM board way back then.
Gloria has posted the detailed summary of the book in JMF and it perked the curiosity and interest of most of us - especially mine. Since I never judge a book by its summary LOL... and readers' reaction, I decided to join the book tour.
I was bracing myself for disliking it and giving it up.
The first few pages was a little boring for me coz in the middle of my reading, other thoughts keep on popping into my head, unabling me to concentrate. However, a hundred page after, my interest was captured and I am liking it!
Yeah, it was unbelievable since I assumed this was a dark book based on the summary.
Right now, I am still on Chapter 8 and so far so good. I was not able to read it a lot coz we had to cook for our friend/flatmate's birthday celebration last Thursday.
Labels: Books, Christine Monson, Stormfire
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Why waste time, space and effort?
I am thankful for the discovery of internet because my reading horizon was not constricted only to books and magazines near me. Internet brings me the largest collection of reading materials from all over the world.
As I was skimming my usual internet pages and found some informative articles to read, I was struck anew about the nastiness and rudeness of some people.
One of the article I've read was about someone who died recently. I didn't know that person until that article and I felt a little sad and somber because the death of a person was never good news.
However I was so shocked when I read the comments under the article. Some people posted bad and inappropriate things about that person. The person died for Pete's sake, the least he could get is respect - even if he's the most notorious people in the world.
I was also reminded me of some magazines I've read before where people send comments and reaction about someone - and some people would malign and defame those people they don't like.
It bothered me before and now it is bothering me again. Why waste time, space and effort thinking, saying and writing those unkind, negative and malicious words towards someone?
Why not put those time, space and effort to good use by commenting about the good things someone did or praising somebody admirable?
If I dislike a person, I think of them as unworthy recipient of my effort. Typing a comment or sending a mail reaction to magazine takes a lot of effort and time so I don't waste them on the peole I dislike or to just malign someone. I would instead spend those time gushing over my favorite persons or praise someone for their good deeds or send mails to friends instead.
I am also capable of disagreeing with someone or something but there is a way to phrase your disagreement without insulting anyone. Do it POLITELY.
As I was skimming my usual internet pages and found some informative articles to read, I was struck anew about the nastiness and rudeness of some people.
One of the article I've read was about someone who died recently. I didn't know that person until that article and I felt a little sad and somber because the death of a person was never good news.
However I was so shocked when I read the comments under the article. Some people posted bad and inappropriate things about that person. The person died for Pete's sake, the least he could get is respect - even if he's the most notorious people in the world.
I was also reminded me of some magazines I've read before where people send comments and reaction about someone - and some people would malign and defame those people they don't like.
It bothered me before and now it is bothering me again. Why waste time, space and effort thinking, saying and writing those unkind, negative and malicious words towards someone?
Why not put those time, space and effort to good use by commenting about the good things someone did or praising somebody admirable?
If I dislike a person, I think of them as unworthy recipient of my effort. Typing a comment or sending a mail reaction to magazine takes a lot of effort and time so I don't waste them on the peole I dislike or to just malign someone. I would instead spend those time gushing over my favorite persons or praise someone for their good deeds or send mails to friends instead.
I am also capable of disagreeing with someone or something but there is a way to phrase your disagreement without insulting anyone. Do it POLITELY.
Labels: negativity, personal, rudeness, social
Monday, March 17, 2008
Welcome to my new blog!
I have closed my old one because I felt that last year, all I posted were trash.
So here's a new one for a new me. LOL!
If you notice, I have four categories for this Blog:
1) My Blog - which contains all my thoughts, reflections, musings, opinions about anything and everything under the sun.
2) Creative Writings - contains all the poems, essays, short stories, fan fictions and other prose types I've written.
3) Dear Diary - my initial plan for this category was to chronicle what's happening to me day by day. But then that would get personal and i don't want that so I'll just want you to see what I write here and from who/which/what perspective.
4) Ilonggo Blog - would help me practice expressing myself in my dialect. Mostly, this would contain my opinions and thoughts on what's happening locally.
5) Profile - contains info about me as well as getting to know posts.
I hope you'll come visit me often.
So here's a new one for a new me. LOL!
If you notice, I have four categories for this Blog:
1) My Blog - which contains all my thoughts, reflections, musings, opinions about anything and everything under the sun.
2) Creative Writings - contains all the poems, essays, short stories, fan fictions and other prose types I've written.
3) Dear Diary - my initial plan for this category was to chronicle what's happening to me day by day. But then that would get personal and i don't want that so I'll just want you to see what I write here and from who/which/what perspective.
4) Ilonggo Blog - would help me practice expressing myself in my dialect. Mostly, this would contain my opinions and thoughts on what's happening locally.
5) Profile - contains info about me as well as getting to know posts.
I hope you'll come visit me often.
Labels: blog, introduction
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Harry Potter Obsession: Better Late than Never!
Orig. Written: July 18, 2007
I was still in college when Harry Potter became famous worldwide. I was already a bookworm and have read every book that came my way. However, when I learned that Harry Potter was a book for children I said to myself that I have already graduated past the "children books" stage and was not reading even Sweet Valley University anymore.
Year 2001, the life of Harry Potter became more popular with the movie, but still I did not pick any Harry Potter books nor found out what the furor was about him. And thinking about it, it seems surprising that I did not try to really know about the books, when normally, I always try to get a general idea of what's the world's talking about.
Instead, Sharie and I settled in watching the movie to get a general idea of the Harry Potter world. And we were entertained by the movie - but not enough to really read the books.
Then the Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban movies came out and we watched them and we enjoyed them. But still I didn't read the book.
When the Half-Blood Prince came out in 2005, Sharie borrowed the book (and yes, I haven't read the Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix yet, and have only watched the first three movies) from her colleague sometime in December 2005 coz that time, we didn't have any new books to read.
I think it was Sharie who read the book first and all throughout her reading, she was asking me questions about the characters and about what happened and she is so clueless of what's happening in book 6.
So I searched and found ebooks of the first five books in the web just to appease my curiosity and interest and I was glad when i was able to find five of them. Fantastic! So I spent nights and days in front of my laptop, ignoring JMF and my friends coz I spent most of my time getting to know Harry Potter and his friends and enemies. I think I finished them all in a week or two.
When I was reading the fifth book, I felt my heart swelling with happiness when Dudley made friends with Harry; when it was Harry and Hermione who ended up being together; I was surprised when Malfoy turned to the good side and ended up with Ginny; then I almost sobbed when Dudley died and Harry's Aunt Petunia and his Uncle Vernon did not blame him for Dudley's death. And I said, wow, that was fantastic. OOP is my most favorite HP book.
And so I eagerly opened the Half Blood Prince ---- and how my jaw dropped and my eyes bugged out, when I read the Dudley is so very much alive and has gotten more bad, how Petunia and Vernon are still treating Harry like dirt!
OMGoodness!!! I was so confused then. It turned out that the OOP I have downloaded was not a real book but a fan fiction. Served me right, right? LOOL!
So I searched for the ebook again and found the real OOP and so by the time I read HBP, I already know who are the characters there.
Early this year, we transferred to a new flat and have acquired a new flatmate/friend who's also crazy about Harry Potter. We talked about it and it fueled my interest again so I searched for those ebooks I downloaded but I couldn't find it in any of the CDs. It must have been deleted when I reformatted my laptop to its original configuration.
So I searched for the ebooks again but the ones I found, I felt that some parts are missing. What we did next was find Harry Potter books in the bookstores and supermarket. I was glad I was able to find 5 books in three different stores (still haven't got the first book yet).
And thus, my Harry Potter obsession begins. I just finished rereading them a few weeks ago and I searched the internet for some of the questions I have. I have found mugglenet.com which has a great source of HP information (and I think they're the most user-friendly among all HP sites). Just starting February alone, we have lost count of the times we watched our HP DVD's.
It was overwhelming to read everything because I have been so late. I was impressed with all the theories that abound. I don't think I would be able to catch up with everything that's in mugglenet.
In a few days, all the answers would be questioned and I can hardly wait. Today is the start of the showing of HPOOTP movie here in Kuwait and we are going to watch it with Eloi on Thursday. This is the first time we're going to watch a movie in Kuwait cinemas.
Then on Saturday ---- we're going to buy HP books. Hooray!
I was still in college when Harry Potter became famous worldwide. I was already a bookworm and have read every book that came my way. However, when I learned that Harry Potter was a book for children I said to myself that I have already graduated past the "children books" stage and was not reading even Sweet Valley University anymore.
Year 2001, the life of Harry Potter became more popular with the movie, but still I did not pick any Harry Potter books nor found out what the furor was about him. And thinking about it, it seems surprising that I did not try to really know about the books, when normally, I always try to get a general idea of what's the world's talking about.
Instead, Sharie and I settled in watching the movie to get a general idea of the Harry Potter world. And we were entertained by the movie - but not enough to really read the books.
Then the Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban movies came out and we watched them and we enjoyed them. But still I didn't read the book.
When the Half-Blood Prince came out in 2005, Sharie borrowed the book (and yes, I haven't read the Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix yet, and have only watched the first three movies) from her colleague sometime in December 2005 coz that time, we didn't have any new books to read.
I think it was Sharie who read the book first and all throughout her reading, she was asking me questions about the characters and about what happened and she is so clueless of what's happening in book 6.
So I searched and found ebooks of the first five books in the web just to appease my curiosity and interest and I was glad when i was able to find five of them. Fantastic! So I spent nights and days in front of my laptop, ignoring JMF and my friends coz I spent most of my time getting to know Harry Potter and his friends and enemies. I think I finished them all in a week or two.
When I was reading the fifth book, I felt my heart swelling with happiness when Dudley made friends with Harry; when it was Harry and Hermione who ended up being together; I was surprised when Malfoy turned to the good side and ended up with Ginny; then I almost sobbed when Dudley died and Harry's Aunt Petunia and his Uncle Vernon did not blame him for Dudley's death. And I said, wow, that was fantastic. OOP is my most favorite HP book.
And so I eagerly opened the Half Blood Prince ---- and how my jaw dropped and my eyes bugged out, when I read the Dudley is so very much alive and has gotten more bad, how Petunia and Vernon are still treating Harry like dirt!
OMGoodness!!! I was so confused then. It turned out that the OOP I have downloaded was not a real book but a fan fiction. Served me right, right? LOOL!
So I searched for the ebook again and found the real OOP and so by the time I read HBP, I already know who are the characters there.
Early this year, we transferred to a new flat and have acquired a new flatmate/friend who's also crazy about Harry Potter. We talked about it and it fueled my interest again so I searched for those ebooks I downloaded but I couldn't find it in any of the CDs. It must have been deleted when I reformatted my laptop to its original configuration.
So I searched for the ebooks again but the ones I found, I felt that some parts are missing. What we did next was find Harry Potter books in the bookstores and supermarket. I was glad I was able to find 5 books in three different stores (still haven't got the first book yet).
And thus, my Harry Potter obsession begins. I just finished rereading them a few weeks ago and I searched the internet for some of the questions I have. I have found mugglenet.com which has a great source of HP information (and I think they're the most user-friendly among all HP sites). Just starting February alone, we have lost count of the times we watched our HP DVD's.
It was overwhelming to read everything because I have been so late. I was impressed with all the theories that abound. I don't think I would be able to catch up with everything that's in mugglenet.
In a few days, all the answers would be questioned and I can hardly wait. Today is the start of the showing of HPOOTP movie here in Kuwait and we are going to watch it with Eloi on Thursday. This is the first time we're going to watch a movie in Kuwait cinemas.
Then on Saturday ---- we're going to buy HP books. Hooray!
Labels: Books, harry potter, jk rowling
Question on blond jokes
Orig. written: July 3, 2007
Are there any jokes referring to blond men?
I have in my Google homepage "Joke for the Day" subscription and there are a lot of blond jokes and all of them refer to women. I have yet to read a joke about blond men!
I sincerely hope there's even just one out there.
Are there any jokes referring to blond men?
I have in my Google homepage "Joke for the Day" subscription and there are a lot of blond jokes and all of them refer to women. I have yet to read a joke about blond men!
I sincerely hope there's even just one out there.
Labels: blond jokes, thoughts
Tidbits of info learned from Envy
Orig written: Monday, July 02, 2007
I have finally finished the book for our discussion this month in JMF which is Envy by Sandra Brown. But silly me, I've just said in my post the other day that I'd stay away from my online life and concentrate on my RL first and most especially my writing. So what should I do, stay away or join the discussion
Anyway, speaking of writing, there were several lines in the book that inspired me. You see, the book dwells a lot on writing, editing and publishing. I've learned about how an editor thinks, how a writer thinks and how a publisher conducts business and gets profit. It was a very informative book for would-be writers like me.
It started out ok but dragging for me but the last chapters had been so engrossing that I ended up sleeping at 10 minutes past 3 AM again.
Well, one of the most important thing I've learned about writing is that it is a God-given gift. No matter how you follow and master all the technical aspects of writing, you would wind up with a mediocre book only if you got no writing talent whatsoever.
Now this got me thinking: do I really have the talent? Or did I only learn the technicalities of English grammar and writing?
I have finally finished the book for our discussion this month in JMF which is Envy by Sandra Brown. But silly me, I've just said in my post the other day that I'd stay away from my online life and concentrate on my RL first and most especially my writing. So what should I do, stay away or join the discussion
Anyway, speaking of writing, there were several lines in the book that inspired me. You see, the book dwells a lot on writing, editing and publishing. I've learned about how an editor thinks, how a writer thinks and how a publisher conducts business and gets profit. It was a very informative book for would-be writers like me.
It started out ok but dragging for me but the last chapters had been so engrossing that I ended up sleeping at 10 minutes past 3 AM again.
Well, one of the most important thing I've learned about writing is that it is a God-given gift. No matter how you follow and master all the technical aspects of writing, you would wind up with a mediocre book only if you got no writing talent whatsoever.
Now this got me thinking: do I really have the talent? Or did I only learn the technicalities of English grammar and writing?
Labels: Books, envy, sandra brown, writing